Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Censorship Files

The Director of the Office of War Information (Davis) to the British Minister of Information (Bracken)¹

secret
priority

[Washington,] November 30, 1943.

I must enter the most energetic protest against the Reuter[s] dispatch purporting to come from Lisbon and distributed today.² While I realize that Reuters is a purely private institution on which the British government has not the slightest shadow of influence, this dispatch is reported to have been passed by the British censorship for radio transmission abroad though we understand it was not published in the United Kingdom. I need hardly point out to you the very unfortunate consequences. First is a serious and perhaps perilous violation of security. Second, the political warfare value for both the American and British governments of the meetings and the decisions made thereat will be materially lessened by premature disclosure of the fact which enables the Germans and the Japanese to blanket the world with their version of the story before the actual announcement is on the record. Finally, a consideration not without importance is the universal indignation of the American press at Reuters disclosure here though not in British Isles of facts this morning imparted to American newspapers with instruction to observe extraordinary precautions to preserve secrecy. As you know this is far from the first time that such an incident has occurred though this exceeds all its predecessors in flagrancy. This practice could become one of the most serious obstacles to Anglo-American understanding. In the interest of that understanding, as well as of our coordinated propaganda against the enemy, I most urgently request you to see that censorship holds Reuters in line hereafter.

1. Sent to Carroll, Director of the London bureau of the Office of War Information, for transmittal to Bracken.

2. The Reuters dispatch, as printed in the New York Times of December 1, 1943, p. 1, col. 1, read as follows:

   “Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 30—President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill have completed a long conference in Cairo and are now en route to somewhere in Iran to meet Premier Stalin, it is known here definitely.

   “Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek took part in the Cairo conference and will also meet Premier Stalin.

   “A communiqué agreed on after the Cairo conference will be published later this week. The three statesmen met on one occasion in a tent in the shadow of the Pyramids.

   “During the conference Cairo was cut off from communications with the rest of the world. President Roosevelt and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who was accompanied by Madame Chiang, traveled to Cairo by air, while Prime Minister Churchill traveled by sea.”